


Charismatic Megafauna

by imaginary_golux



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Background Relationships, Character Study, F/M, M/M, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-02 22:38:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6585388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So this grew out of an idea that Best Beloved and I were batting around a while back, about shapeshifters whose other forms massed the same as they did in human form - so then I had to go figure out which animals fit those criteria, and then which ones suited the fluffballs best...</p>
<p>Shapeshifting, with the Force!</p>
<p>Beta by my Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Charismatic Megafauna

Rey’s form, when she finally finds it, is a sleek rangy creature the color of sand, with retractable claws and long deadly teeth and a tail that lashes silently behind her. “Puma,” Poe says the first time he sees it, and Rey, crouched on a rock outcropping, silent as death, looks down at him out of slitted green eyes and smiles a cat’s smile, enigmatic and fierce.

Finn is a great dark creature, shaggy-furred and sure-footed, that the General recognizes: “Dire wolf,” she names him, “elk-hunter.” He runs in the puma’s footsteps, chases her through leaves and grass, and when they wrestle the jaws which could break bone are so gentle that she does not even bruise.

Poe, who is roughly as Force-sensitive as his X-Wing, has no form to find; but he plays with the wolf and the puma, chases them when they crouch at his feet with their tails lashing and their eyes bright, wrestles with them in the grass, and they can smell no fear on him even when there is a wolf on his chest, panting down happily into his face, a puma stalking him through the base and rubbing up against his legs as he turns corners; there is nothing but honest affection when he wakes with a wolf draped across his legs and a puma curled into the curve of his body, their fur warm against his skin. For this, as for so many things, they love him.

Leia does not take her other form often, because unlike Rey’s puma, which is catlike enough that after the initial startlement many people are willing to scratch her behind the ears, or Finn’s dire wolf, which is doglike enough that when he wags his tail everyone forgets to fear him (until they see him in battle, mouth red with enemy blood or never-missing blaster unerring in his hands), Leia’s form is one which causes fear. Her spotted hyena is so clearly a hunter, a fighter, queen of all she surveys - no one ever thinks to scratch her behind the ears or pet her coarse fur.

(No one until Rey, one day, when Leia has been coaxed into changing, says, “But you’re so beautiful” and buries her hands in thick fur, rubs her face against Leia’s shoulder, and Finn laughs and play-bows and runs when she chases him, tail like a flag, and Poe sits laughing on his rock until Leia, caught in the moment, nudges her head into his lap so hard he falls sprawling to the ground and wraps his arms around her neck, grins up at her and calls her ‘General’ with nothing but respect and deep affection.)

Luke’s other form is well-loved around the base, his soft black fur easy to bury one’s face in when the stress becomes a little too much, his tendency to spend much of his time basking on sun-warmed rocks making him easy to find. “Sun bear,” Leia calls him, and it’s easy to forget that he is dangerous until and unless he grows angry - and it is very hard to anger him - and then it is easy to remember that those enormous digging claws can be used for other things than finding grubs. (Luke puts up with the efforts of some of the young pilots to paint his digging claws with great dignity, and only objects when they try to use red nail polish. The sight of a sleeping sun bear with his claws painted green and blue in intricate swirling patterns becomes a common one, if never less than disconcerting.)

*

Kylo Ren, Rey discovers when they fight again, is a tiger, scarred and battered and furious and most dangerous when injured. He outweighs her substantially, and his claws are longer.

But Rey is not alone, and even a tiger will have some difficulty when faced not only with a very angry puma, but also with a dire wolf defending his pack - not to mention a truly furious X-Wing pilot with a blaster and a remarkable sense of aim.

*

But that is for later; now there is a broad green field, and a puma romping with a wolf in the center of it, while Poe Dameron leans back against a moss-covered rock and weaves a daisy crown for BB-8 and laughs at his lovers’ antics; and atop the rock a hyena grooms a sun bear’s head and the bear makes lazy grumbling sounds and flexes its intricately-painted claws.

Now there is joy.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Adorable Fluff](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8965507) by [Sailor Bluestar (sailorbluestar)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailorbluestar/pseuds/Sailor%20Bluestar)




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